Spring, flowers, frogpond, goldfish pond

We're greening up! The girls are here for April break. Izzy promised to help me take the Christmas tree down. Soon, the bird feeders will have to go. 

 The daffodils Isabelle and I planted are beginning to grow. Deer don't like them! I put the trailcam out here. It's in the middle of the photo, to the left of the laundry tree.

This is phoebe, flying from the top of the camera! I thought it a hoot. They are choosing their nesting site, but still undecided.

OK, to my winding tale... Jebbs Creek is high and flowing.

Friday

Permit me to vent, or skip this altogether! I took JB in for an eye appointment. He's getting new reading glasses, just like the old ones. I sat and read in the car. It was a lovely day, warm, my car windows were open. A truck pulled up behind me. Suddenly, I could smell cigarette smoke, though. He kept his cigarette outside of the truck and the breeze wafted the smell towards me. I thought I had to move up 3 parking spots and then took a photo. With COVID, it could waft, as well, being an airborne virus. 

Boats in their coats, likely until the May 24 weekend.

Boats in their coats at the marina.

I'm wondering what this is all about. They've cleared this land along highway 15. This was from my trip to the dentist Thursday. Do you know anything about it, Anvilcloud?!

On our way into town, the 😷Tay River Health Centre is coming along. I've been taking photos as the building grows up. They are landscaping, and working on the outside.

Springtime! 

I often miss the forsythia, being behind a tree in the front yard. It's not in full bloom, but I bet I forget to check it! 

Cinnamon has been a hoot. He was down at the pond frogging. It's all melted, and teeming with life.

We spotted a blood sucker,  leech in pond . Nothing like the one I found in 2015: when have you seen a leech? That one was huge and swimming around my ankles when I was cleaning out pond debris.

Cinnamon caught a frog, and let it go. Then gave his paws a good wash. Cinnamon frogging

I started up the goldfish pond pump. Cinnamon approved. he loves wandering around the pond, chasing the frogs into the water, where they belong. I think I might put them in this week. 

It was a good winter for the goldfish pond. There were only two dead frogs after it melted. By December, I'd moved 19 frogs to the frogpond. [More froggies in the goldfish pond]

I found these floating in the goldfish pond. They didn't make it through the winter. I can see larvae in the  water, though. They survived the freeze-thaw spring. Understriped Diving Beetles primarily eat dead things. 

Critters in the wetland

JB went out for walkies. He came back. Apparently, Nutmeg had gone with him to the point, a narrow piece of land in the middle of the wetland. It's a lovely spot. Part way there, Cinnamon was sitting on a log jutting out into the water, with his tail in the water. JB paid a bit more attention, and spotted something. He hustled back up to the house to tell me. Cinn stayed put. He thought they were otters. I grabbed the videocamera, put the zoom lens on the tripod and went down. I thought he'd said the frogpond, for some reason. The zoom wasn't much help. I should have known. They are spritely critters, always in motion.

He showed me the spot. Cinn was still there. I moved along, as they don't stay put too long. Turns out, it was a pair of muskrats. I didn't capture a photo, but mystery solved. Here he was searching!

They were right here! Honest!

My tale is done! You're all caught up. Thank you for following along. The week begins anew.

I did not scream like a girl!

Daisy and I were on walkies by the pond. Sitting on our stumps, breathing in the fine, cool, crisp air, I heard something in the leaves. This poor little frog was having its blood sucked out by an incubus.

OK, it's too close to Hallowe'en. It was a massive Water beetle. You can see the size of my shoe in the 3rd photo. All I had was my videocam, and its photos aren't great, but here you are! I picked the frog up, tossed it into the pond water, after the Water beetle let go. Thankfully. It's about 3" long.

Have you seen these bugs? Beetles, I suppose. They fly. A water beetle, but they don't need to live in the water. I spotted this one, below, in September, 2011 on my 2nd story back porch. Seriously. They have quite the pinch, apparently. I chose not to touch it, bad role model for Daisy.

More info:
Raven Garfield Sculptor  Oh it absolutely preys on frogs and other critters directly!! It has a penetrating semi-retractable proboscis. Think of it as sort of a mosquito way of feeding. It has digestive enzymes... seizes prey in its arms like a praying mantis would.... then jabs its pointy bit into the prey.. and slurps out the goop like a spider.

Really, it has neat features of several other critters when you think about it! I'm a big time entomology nerd... I used to love keeping these guys in tanks. They almost invariably use their hind legs to hold on to air hoses or power cords.... rear ends with an air tube breaking the surface.. arms spread wide waiting for some wee bait fish to swim past and *WHACK!!!*. When they were done feeding you'd see these husks of wee fish.. all bent in the middle at a sharp angle where they were folded in half to be hollowed out.